The Variant Earth Dragon

12th could clearly see the panic and hopelessness in the Earth Dragon’s eyes. The sandstorm is really close now, and looking down at it, he could see, not only ma.s.sive amounts of gravel, there are also streaks of something eerily black. He called out, “Everyone, brace yourselves, the sandstorm is about to hit!”

Boom!

A sudden gust of air rushed over, even though 12th and the others were quite far from the sandstorm, they still felt their minds being shaken, much like the feeling of dread at the time of the apocalypse, it’s as if all the strength from their bodies dissipated into the air. “Amazing……” 12th muttered, as he fell unconscious.

The Earth Dragon let out an earth-shattering roar, but the loose rocks beneath its claws were constantly moving making it impossible to get a foothold, in addition to its own weight it slid helplessly to the ground. In that moment, the terrifying sandstorm covered it.

While leaning on a Fu Master Luo Jie shouted, “Take me back!” and they retreated while the other Fu Masters used s.h.i.+eld Fu to lead the way. At the same time, Qi Nan Shan also quickly retreated. When the sandstorm reached the cliff it would climb the cliff face up, and he knew that it must not be touched.

Just like a giant wave hitting a large rock but quickly receding after the first hit, the sandstorm did the same. This incredibly long cliff face is just like that large rock, it blocked the destructive path of the sandstorm.

The Earth Dragon’s cry was filled with pain, but suddenly, the cries stopped. Once the sandstorm had completely receded, the Earth Dragon’s body was revealed.

12th slowly woke up, he felt as though he has no strength in his body and that his soul was a mess; startled and scared he immediately started to chant. The scripture only had 167 words and each time he spoke one, the sound floated in the air. Waves of sound diffused out. His chanting speed was not only quick but also incredibly clear.

The soul essences, in response to the chanting, began to calm down, what was more interesting was that the strands of the essences scattered throughout the air were being forcibly absorbed. After the third chant they grew into a ring, which made 12th pleasantly surprised. He chanted ten times in quick succession, but the results were less obvious, so he stopped.

Huo Bao and his other companions all lay facedown on the ground, unconscious. 12th took out a water skin and poured the water on their faces, a moment later, they also started waking, each with fear left in their hearts said, “So frightening!”

12th stuck his head out to see the Earth Dragon below the gap, after a brief glance he was left speechless. He exclaimed, “s.h.i.+t! What was that?! It’s so powerful!”

The Earth Dragon lay at the bottom of the gap, originally very muscular but now it’s body became emaciated, as though it was just the skin covering the bones and all the meat and flesh had disappeared into thin air. Because of it’s size, despite just being left with a skeletal structure covered by skin, it still seemed abnormally frightening. 12th excitedly leapt up and yelled, “Master, you’re rich!”

“You guys wait here!”

12th sprinted to where Luo Jie was.

Luo Jie and Qi Nan Shan were at the top of the gap, quietly watching the Earth Dragon below, upon hearing 12th recklessly shouting, “Master, you’re rich!”, he couldn’t help but smile. Indeed, as long as they harvested this Earth Dragon, the gains from this escapade would be well beyond what was originally predicted.

A Variant Fu Beast such as this Earth Dragon, in normal circ.u.mstances, even if it was Luo Jie and the others who encountered it, they would have stayed as far away from it as possible. This is not something they would want to provoke, even though they are two Great Masters. Unless there were about a dozen Great Masters, and on advantageous grounds, only then would it be possible to challenge this kind of Variant Fu Beast.

“That sandstorm was filled with Death energy, how has it even formed? To think that in such a short time, it can kill an adult Earth Dragon. That was close, had we been caught in it.….. It would have been impossible to escape.”

Even Luo Jie was still in a cold sweat, had they not travelled so quickly they would probably already be dead in the sand by now.

Qi Nan Shan very carefully said, “Elder, watch my back, I’m going down to see if that thing is truly dead.” A Great Master’s strength is extraordinary, and with that, they have the ability to carry out the most dangerous of tasks. He speedily dashed down the giant rock in the direction of the Earth Dragon.

Luo Jie called out, “Nan Shan, be careful!” He exhaled his Innate Fu Book, being so alert, he ignored 12th as he arrived.

12th was stunned and couldn’t help but ask, “You mean to say that the Earth Dragon isn’t dead?”

Luo Jie, still watching, said, “Grandpa Nan Shan went to confirm it! We don’t know whether or not the Earth Dragon is really dead.”

In that moment, 12th became nervous, even if there was a single breath left in the Earth Dragon’s body, it would be incredibly difficult to kill. He stared at Qi Nan Shan, silently praying that the Earth Dragon was thoroughly dead. Moments later, he saw Qi Nan Shan stop next to the Earth Dragon’s head, he looked like a small black dot, like an ant next to the head of a man lying down, seemingly very small.

Suddenly, Qi Nan Shan abruptly leapt aside. Seeing the Earth Dragon slightly lift up it’s head, with a weak growl, it was obvious that it had reached it’s limits.

Luo Jie expression changed, he said, “That’s a problem, for that Earth Dragon to still be alive…… Its life force must be incredibly strong.” He furrowed his brows. However would be a shame to give up on it, so he grit his teeth and yelled, “Destroy it! Do not let it escape at all costs! If it regains its strength, we won’t ever have a chance like this again!”

“Luo Zhan, you lead the Fu Masters down to secure it! Take care! Be careful of its attacks.”

Luo Zhan lead the Fu Masters in a quick sprint down.

12th called out, “Uncle Luo, be careful! Don’t be reckless!”

Luo Zhan laughed, saying,  “Don’t worry, 12th!”

12th turned and ran to the edge. It doesn’t matter what anyone says, he is also a Fu Warrior, with some degree of ranged combat capabilities, he refused to watch his Masters risk their lives, while he just stands on the sidelines.

Luo Jie didn’t have time to worry about 12th, his attention was solely on the Earth Dragon, even if the Earth Dragon had but half a breath left, it would be wise not to be complacent.

Luo Jie had 8 Fu Warriors protecting him, Qi Nan Shan and the other Fu Warriors all went down. The most powerful attack was executed by Luo Jie, for he is the only one capable of killing the Earth Dragon, the others, even Great Master Qi Nan Shan, would have a hard time killing it, that thing was far too big.

Fortunately, the Earth Dragon’s wounds were grievous, and was already on the verge of collapsing, its life force has almost been sucked dry by the sandstorm. It strenuously lifted its enormous body, roared, and tried to turn around beneath the pile of rocks, but it was too weak. It breathed so heavily that even at the top of the cliff, 12th could hear it clear as day.

Huo Bao and his other companions finally woke up, they scuffled along next to 12th and each stuck their heads out to watch, glancing briefly, they immediately broke out into cold sweats. Huo Bao said, “Oh my, that Earth Dragon……what on earth happened to it?”

12th replied, “The sandstorm covered it for less than a minute…… and it became like that.”

They all became dumbfounded, Chen Bing let out a breath saying, “That’s absurd……  To turn such a large Earth Dragon into a Skeletal Earth Dragon…… Too scary, way too scary……”

Chen Hong quietly asked, “What are Grandpa Nan Shan and the others doing?”

12th replied, “Killing the dragon!”, but quickly added, “Luckily, it’s an already almost dead Earth Dragon, otherwise…… it would be unsure who’s killing who.”

The Earth Dragon struggled to turn its body around, it lay horizontally, you could tell that it wanted to free itself from the pile of rocks. This was the best time to attack, Luo Jie had already been waiting for this moment. As soon as the Earth Dragon revealed itself completely, Luo Jie had already prepared it.

“Ring of Heavenly Thorns!”

This is Luo Jie’s Attack-type Spirit Fu, it has a nice name, ‘Ring of Heavenly Thorns’, it looks like an elliptical ring made of green light, on the ring, there are millions of teeth, similar to a saw, making it very formidable. Luo Jie rarely used a Spirit Fu as powerful as this.

Luo Jie continued to read from his Innate Fu Book, in one breath he sent out 6 Rings of Heavenly Thorns to attack. This Spirit Fu has 16 uses, afterwards it’s left in his Innate Fu Book to recharge.

Six rings of light shot out from his Innate Fu Book, some large some small, they each turned into rings about 5-6 meters in diameter, shooting vertically towards the Earth Dragon’s thick neck.

Originally 12th was planning to help out his Master, but upon seeing the rings of light, not only did his jaw drop, he thought, “Holy s.h.i.+t! What the h.e.l.l are those things?! What Fu could have such a powerful attack?”

The rings shot through the air with an ear-piercing, howling noise.

The Earth Dragon is not a Variant Fu Beast for nothing, it sensed the danger and desperately tried to move its gigantic body. Usually its large body was quite agile but at the moment it had become a severe hindrance. Feeling utter humiliation, it gave out a desperate roar, a roar filled with unyielding defiance and frustration.

However the Earth Dragon was already at death’s door, no matter how it tried, it couldn’t dodge in time.

The Rings of Heavenly Thorns shot straight at the Earth Dragon’s neck. 12th opened his eyes wide and he could clearly see the first ring was like a circular saw, cutting into its neck and then dissipating. A line of blood appeared on the scales of the Earth Dragon’s neck. To think that one Ring of Heavenly Thorns could only cut so deep, it’s hard to imagine how st.u.r.dy the Earth Dragon’s scales really are.

The second ring shortly followed, and then the third…… By the time the fourth ring cut into it, the Earth Dragon’s tough scales were finally broken through, letting the rings cut deeply into its neck. The fifth ring cut completely into its neck, and the sixth ring cut straight through, coming out the other side.

T/N: Remember the Rings are vertical, initially I made the mistake of thinking they were horizontal and was then confused as to why the dragon wasn’t decapitated….

Luo Jiu breathed a sigh of relief. This was one of his most powerful Attack-type Spirit Fu, as long as it could penetrate the Earth Dragon’s defenses, there’s no need to worry about it surviving. Good thing he had this Spirit Fu, otherwise they wouldn’t even know how to deal with this Earth Dragon.

The Earth Dragon was. .h.i.t by 6 Rings of Heavenly Thorns, it was already close to dying, but after suffering this fatal attack, there was even less chance of survival. The giant body started to thrash about, its enormous tail whipped around, surprisingly destroying a giant rock of about 10 diameters.

Qi Nan Shan shouted, “Everyone move!” he gave a long howl, and leapt onto the back of the Earth Dragon, with a long Fu Knife in hand, he immediately thrust it towards the Earth Dragon’s Head.

The Earth Dragon was in such a frenzy by then that it didn’t even notice that somebody was climbing to the top of its head, it only cared about thras.h.i.+ng around.

Qi Nan Shan was very quick, within a few moments he reach the top of the Earth Dragon’s ma.s.sive head. He raised his Fu Knife, and with a bright flash of green light, along with a shout, he thrusted the Fu Knife down violently.

This strike cut straight into the Earth Dragon’s brain. In comparison to the rest of its body the Earth Dragon’s head seemed quite small, however in comparison to Qi Nan Shan, its head was frighteningly large. The strike ended the Earth Dragon’s life, and with a loud crash, it stiffened and collapsed on the ground.

It’s sad that the Earth Dragon died in such a humiliating way, it didn’t even get to make a Fu attack.

12th leapt up with a cheer, which startled Huo Bao into grabbing him so he doesn’t fall off the edge, saying, “12th, be careful not to fall down!”

“Let’s go down!”

The Earth Dragon was priceless. A Variant Earth Dragon, which is also a Fu Beast, has an astronomical value. 12th excitedly ran to Luo Jie’s side, but found that Luo Jie’s face was drenched in cold sweat, worriedly he asked, “Master, why are you…..” He didn’t know what to say, and thought it best just to take out a piece of cloth and wipe away the sweat from his Master’s face.

Luo Jie said, “12th, we were incredibly lucky, haha, that was far too scary!”

12th didn’t understand so he asked, “Scary? Master, what’s a wise old man like you afraid of? The Earth Dragon is dead isn’t it?”

Luo Jie replied, “That’s why we were lucky, if the Earth Dragon had even a fraction more of its strength, my Ring of Heavenly Thorns wouldn’t have been able to break through its defense. If it was even slightly more conscious, it would have been able to dodge them completely and might even have escaped, haha, we would not have been able to stop it alone.”

Now 12th understood, even his own Master had less than 1% confidence in killing it. 12th couldn’t help but admire him, you really do get wiser as you get older, his Master grasped this opportunity with such initiative. From deciding to stop the Earth Dragon to personally striking it down, he took that 1% chance and exploited it so well that finally they were victorious, more importantly, there were no casualties.

Luo Jie smiled and said, “Now we can harvest, haha, this is the temptation of the unknown!”

12th followed Luo Jie and climbed down. Once he arrived next to the Earth Dragon’s corpse, he couldn’t help but awkwardly ask, “how are we supposed to harvest such a big creature? It’ll take months to collect everything from such a large body.”

Smiling, Luo Jie replied, “No need to exaggerate, we’ll take it one step at a time, haha, after all it’s time to collect the bounty, this is the best moment of our lives! Let’s hurry, first extract the purified blood, this time I’ll use the 16 Fu Purification Technique so watch carefully.”

12th was stunned, 16 Fu Purification Technique, this is a technique that relies on using the Innate Fu Book, it’s a highly advanced Purification Technique. And so he replied, “Yes, Master.”

Huo Bao and his other companions also came down. 12th said, “Huo Bao, you guys go and search the cliff face, I think there should be some loot. To be able to stay ahead of the sandstorm and make it here…… regardless of whether it’s man or Fu Beast, they had skill, and they must have left some pretty nice things, go have a look……”

Luo Jie gave it some thought, and with a happy expression said, “Luo Zhan, come over here!”

Luo Zhan ran over and asked, “Elder, what’s the matter?”

Luo Jie smiled and said, “Take some men and search the base of the cliff, look for anything of value.”

12th rolled his eyes and hastily added, “Don’t forget that I have a share in whatever you find!”

Luo Jie smiled and jokingly said , “Greedy little boy! Fine, you can take a share.” He patted the Earth Dragon’s corpse and said, “Look at it’s scales, they’re beautiful, they’re naturally covered in Fu patterns.”

“Nan Shan! Nan Shan!”

Qi Nan Shan jumped down from the Dragon and said, “Congratulations, Elder!”

The two let out howls of laughter. Luo Jie said, “I never thought a person as old as me would get to hunt a Fu Beast such as this, haha, oh Nan Shan, help me find the Earth Dragon’s blood vessel and cut it open.” His words were filled with glee.

Qi Nan Shan took his Fu Knife, found the wound made by the Rings of Heavenly Thorns, and said, “We should be able to find it from here, give me a tube!”

Luo Jie took out a refined Fu Tube and handed it to him, saying, “Insert it into the blood vessel, be careful with it.” He then took out a Fu Bottle and gave it to 12th, saying, “After I have purified the blood, collect it in this bottle, one bottle can carry about 300 jin.” (ED: 1 jin=0.5kg if you didn’t know)

12th took the four bottles, and excitedly followed Luo Jie.

Qi Nan Shan took the Fu Tube and stuck one end into the Earth Dragon’s wound. He took his Fu Knife and quickly made an incision in the thick vessel and stuck the tube in, then he called out, “Alright, it’s done!”

Luo Jie exhaled a breath of silvery fog, summoned his Innate Fu Book, and lightly tapped it. A Fu flew out, followed by another tap, this continued fifteen more times, and sixteen Fu flew out in total and they formed a circle. He called, “Spin!” and those sixteen Fu began to spin. It exerted a sucking force on the Fu Tube and suddenly, blood started spurted forth from it.

“Refine!”

12th held the bottle beneath the sixteen Fu and the purified blood dripped into the bottle. As time went on the drips gradually became a steady flow of blood and eventually started pouring out, like a river, quickly filling up the bottle. 12th diligently watched it for he had three more bottles next to his feet that he needed to swap in at the right time.

The sixteen Fu spun quickly, and ma.s.sive amounts of mist started to form, that was the waste which was being filtered out.

After about six hours, the four bottles were all full. 12th took out his own bottle, and smiling, he said, “Master, this one’s for me okay?”

Luo Jie agreed saying, “There isn’t much left, you can take what’s left.”

This Fu Bottle was created by 12th himself, it wasn’t as good as Luo Jie’s Fu Bottles. It could hold about 100 jin, give or take. Gradually, the blood flow became smaller and smaller, till it eventually started dripping again. Luo Jie said, “That’s all, it’s a shame…… This Earth Dragon didn’t have much blood left in the first place, most of it disappeared.”

The Earth Dragon’s body had already largely atrophied, it’s unknown what the sandstorm contained, but to remove all of the flesh from the Earth Dragon, it’s a good thing the sandstorm only hit for a short amount of time, or else there might not have been any blood left at all.

Recalling his sixteen Fu, Luo Jie excitedly took out his giant Fu Knife. To think that he’s going to personally dissect the Earth Dragon, it startled Qi Nan Shan so much that he hurriedly said, “Wait…… wait! Elder, let me…… here, let me, Elder you can just give me instructions, please don’t get too excited!”

12th almost doubled over laughing, and sarcastically said, “Master, as your student, I am in admiration, complete admiration!”

Luo Jie curiously asked, “12th, what are you laughing at?”

12th let out a laugh, and said semi-seriously, “Master, the way you were holding that giant Fu Knife…… it was very frightening!” A hunchbacked old man, raising a giant-a.s.s Fu Knife, is strange no matter how look at it, no wonder 12th started laughing. Not only did Qi Nan Shan not want him to do it, even 12th himself didn’t have the heart to let his Master do this personally.

“This sort of stuff is for us disciples to do, haha, Master, allow me!”

12th went to take the Fu Knife. However he looked even more funny, like a little monkey swinging a ma.s.sive sword, causing Luo Jie to burst out in laughter.

Qi Nan Shan gave a sigh and laughed, “You two…… 12th, it’s best if you go rest as well, I don’t have the heart to let a small child do this kind of work.”

“So what if I’m a kid, I can dissect this Earth Dragon.” 12th defiantly stated.

Qi Nan Shan replied, “Alright then, cut open this Earth Dragon’s corpse.”

12th with all of his strength, took the Fu Knife and stabbed it downward. Only to hear a ringing noise as the Fu Knife made a small dent in the scales. Surprised, he exclaimed, “What? How hard is this?!” He tried again and again, but after ten minutes he finally got tired and sat down, in lament, saying “What the h.e.l.l is this? How is it so hard?”

Qi Nan Shan laughed as he took the Fu Knife, answering, “This is a Variant Earth Dragon! It’s one of the most aggressive Land Fu Beasts! Even if it’s dead, people without skill won’t know what to do with it.”

12th laughed bitterly saying, “It’s because I was rus.h.i.+ng, there’s already a wound so all I needed to do was cut from the wound. It would’ve been much easier.”

Qi Nan Shan burst into laughter and carried the Fu Knife to the Earth Dragon’s wound. He said, “It’s a shame the Earth Dragon’s flesh has almost completely atrophied, well the skin and scales are still pretty nice.”

Luo Jie took a careful look at the scales on the Earth Dragon’s body, each scale was about the size of a person’s face and were three fingers thick, the edges were sharp, and each scale had naturally occurring Fu patterns. He said, “Naturally occurring Fu, no matter what Fu you make with it, it’s always the best type of Fu, haha, there are too many scales on this Earth Dragon to count!”

Qi Nan Shan gave a loud shout, telling everybody to come back. It would be impossible to harvest everything from this giant Earth Dragon by himself. Soon, everybody who went out all returned. Huo Bao said, “12th, there were lots of remains, we didn’t have time to look through it all carefully…… What did Grandpa Nan Shan call us back for?“

12th smiled and said, “Firstly to work, haha, an Earth Dragon as big as this will last us a while!”

The strength related jobs were for the Fu Masters to do, the smaller less strenuous jobs were done by 12th and his four other companions, Luo Jie was giving instructions so he provided a dozen or so large Hidden Fu Bags. Harvesting the Earth Dragon isn’t a job just anyone can do, it required a lot of skill and delicacy, only with the directions Luo Jie was giving were they able to extract everything without destroying something precious.

The things of value on the Earth Dragon’s body were: the blood, scales, skin, ligaments, bones and internal organs. The most useful and the most priceless one of all was the heart. The heart is one of the most important materials needed to create an Innate Fu Book!

“Elder, I’ve found the Earth Dragon’s heart!”

Qi Nan Shan, covered in blood, climbed down from the Earth Dragon’s torso. Luo Jie excitedly said, “12th, Let’s go have a look.”